FAISALABAD, July 24: Over 200 members of four urban towns allegedly ransacked the office of Solid Waste Management (SWM) director on Monday, manhandled him, staged a sit-in and blocked traffic on railway station intersection.

Reports said members of the Jinnah, Iqbal, Lyallpur and Madina towns held a meeting in Iqbal Hall at Towns Complex and declared district nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef as a `puppet’ of the bureaucracy.

Speaking at the meeting, Madina town naib nazim Mian Sajjad Ahmed, Jinnah town naib nazim Sheikh Zulfiqar and other members said if the town councils were not given back their powers, they would stage a demonstration in front of the Chief Minister’s House and block traffic on main city roads of Faisalabad.

They alleged that Rana Zahid Tauseef was playing in the hands of bureaucracy at the cost of the city’s development and major functions of town councils had been grabbed by the district government unlawfully.

Through a resolution, they demanded that sanitation branches should be handed over to town councils as it was mandatory under Section 54-A of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001. The collection of commercialisation fee was also right of the town administrations and it should not be given to the district government.

Through another resolution, the meeting demanded to withdraw the decision of allocating octroi grants for the City District Government Faisalabad (CDGF) and urged the Punjab government to issue these grants to the town administrations.

The speakers warned if bureaucratic hurdles in the working of town administrations were not removed by the Punjab government and action was not taken against the district nazim for grabbing towns’ powers, all members would resign from their posts in protest.

After the meeting, the infuriated town members gathered at the railway station intersection and blocked traffic.

They were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the CDGF.

Later, the protesters rushed to the office SWM director Dr Iftikhar Ahmed and manhandled him. Some of the members also damaged the furniture and forced him to leave the office.

Thereafter, they went to the office of Municipal Services EDO Naseem Ahmed and tried to misbehave with him, but he left the office. However, three members pelted his vehicle with stones, damaging its windscreen.

The protesters were of the view that the EDO and SWM director had played an important role in detaching various branches from town administrations and giving these powers to CDGF.

Altercations: Altercations between the district government teams and shopkeepers have been reported from various parts of the district during a campaign launched against profiteers and black-marketers.

Reports available here on Monday said the local administration had fixed the prices of various commodities and daily-use items and asked shopkeepers to sell them at controlled rates.

The teams, during the last three days, checked 100 shops and vendors and fined them more than Rs100,000 for violating the government instructions.

Shopkeepers were of the view that they had been made victim of the government action as it was impossible for them to sell sugar, flour, mutton, beef, poultry, vegetable ghee and cooking oil, chili powder and pulses at the rates given by the government. “How is it possible for us to sell pulses at Rs35 to Rs40 per kilogram as it was available in the wholesale market at Rs50 to Rs70 per kg. Beef could not be sold at Rs90 as directed by the government due to high prices of animals.”

District Coordination Officer Azam Suleman Khan told this correspondent that the campaign against the profiteers would continue and no one would be allowed to overcharge consumers.